A Push in the Right Direction
by WordsAreFun
Summary: Sasuke had to get used to a few things after his return to Konoha. One of them was being in love with Naruto. But trying to tell the dense idiot doesn't go as planned. Honestly, pushing her into a river seemed like a good idea at the time. Fem!Naruto. SasuNaru.


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There were a few things that Sasuke had had to get used to again upon his return to Konoha.

The first were the people. He'd expected a lot more anger, fear and hatred, but once Naruto vouched for him people grudgingly accepted him back into the ranks. Sasuke's own generation were a little more reluctant but after a few of Naruto's speeches and two years they had finally stopped glaring at him every time they saw him.

If Sasuke thought things could be settled with a fight, like he did with Naruto, he would take everyone on at once but he'd had to settle for passive aggressiveness instead. And there were a lot of people in Konoha with a grudge.

He sometimes missed Sound, when people would leave him alone and run away in fear, but Naruto seemed to be able to pick up on those kind of thoughts so he stopped before she could start loudly berating him.

The second thing was the heat. Even though Sasuke had grown up in the summers in Fire Country he found himself cursing the heat.

The Uchiha's had always struggled with sunburn, so the cool underground of Sound was a welcome relief. These days his skin was nearly permanently slathered in sticky sunscreen, not helped by rigorous training sessions with Naruto, like the one they'd just finished. He could feel sweat dripping down his back and his clothes were clinging to him. It was getting uncomfortable, especially as he was wearing long sleeves to protect his skin from the blistering sun.

Sasuke missed his white vest-shirt that he wore during his missing-nin years. Now _that_ was a perfectly practical outfit - for anywhere that wasn't Fire or Wind Country anyway (and no, Kakashi, it did _not_ look gay, shut up!).

The heat was made only slightly more bearable by the slight breeze blowing by the Naka River, where he and Naruto were relaxing on the dock.

They'd called off training around noon after Sasuke 'twisted his ankle'. He just didn't want to collapse from heatstroke (again) in front of Naruto, the stamina freak that she was. Oh sure, she'd probably freak out loudly at first, but then she'd carry him "like the pretty princess you are teme!" all the way to the hospital, where Sakura would try to sneak in a quick grope while healing him, and then Naruto would mock him for days afterwards.

The teasing he could deal with, it was practically the foundation of his and Naruto's friendship, and he had years of practice ignoring Sakura, but Naruto would get a look on her face after meetings with Sakura that he couldn't quite pin down but would send his heart lurching in his chest with hope. Was Naruto jealous? Did she care about him? Could it be possible that Naruto _liked_ him? Maybe even… _loved_ him?

Sasuke could admit, if only to himself, that wondering how Naruto felt about him caused him many sleepless nights and even more fantasies.

And that was the third thing he had to get used to: being in love with Naruto.

Sasuke wasn't sure when it was exactly that he'd fallen in love with the dobe. From the moment he saw her in the academy, she had caught his attention, her red hair unique and something he'd never seen before. Of course, then she opened her mouth and he hadn't been the only one to distance themselves; he valued his hearing after all.

Then she'd graduated and made herself interesting but he had his dream to complete so anything not relevant to that was pushed into a little corner in the back of his mind. Ignoring Naruto's "Sexy Jutsu" was a little bit more difficult, but Sasuke was stubborn like that.

So what if he took Haku's senbon attack for her? It was involuntary, honestly!

And it wasn't like anyone could prove that he recorded memories of her with his Sharingan and rewatched them obsessively when he'd left Konoha behind.

Her determination to drag him back to Konoha had been irritating then, not endearing, and he…may have over-reacted a little. He couldn't bring himself to finish the fight at the Valley of the End. He just…couldn't.

The less said after meeting Sai, his _replacement_ , the better.

And yeah, then he'd sort of killed Itachi, started a war, killed a few other people, become one of the world's most wanted criminals, and it was Naruto who saved him from the twisted mess he'd become, with her unshakeable faith, her enthusiasm, her power, her big blue eyes and blinding smile.

It took years of little moments, shared experiences, loss, grief, war, unbelievable teamwork, and an unbreakable bond before he could admit it to himself.

Getting irritated with men (and Hinata) flirting and trying to get close to the dobe was a big clue to figuring out his own feelings. And if he'd had to have 'words' with them, that was his business.

And, well, one of his dreams _was_ to restore his clan…

So, Sasuke was in love with Naruto. And it seemed that only the dobe herself (and his in-denial fangirls) didn't see it. It was driving him insane!

He'd been subtle at first in his attempt to court her, giving her little signs and clues, hoping she'd pick up on them, because he could admit that his social skills were a bit…underdeveloped.

He wasn't even going to attempt to flirt, he had no experience in that whatsoever, and if he tried imitating what his fangirls called flirting in front of Naruto she'd probably have him committed to Konoha's hospital's mental illness ward. And that would put him closer to Sakura's clutches, so nope, not going to happen.

He started small.

He'd ignored everyone else and asked her to spar with him, a common sign of interest among ninjas. Naruto just figured it was because she was the only one who could give him a challenge (which was true, but seriously?!).

Sasuke then started trying to get closer to her, standing close by, always sitting beside her, asking her how her day was, giving a few lingering touches. Naruto had just given him a weird look and asked if he was feeling ok and insisted he see a medic. He'd stopped then because Sakura had perked up and her smile had made him nervous.

After many failed attempts (often ending in humiliation and money exchanging hands by those sadistic bastards that were betting on his love life/confession attempts), Sasuke had eventually swallowed his pride and grudgingly asked a giggling Ino for her help in picking flowers for Naruto.

When he'd approached her, Naruto (who had either failed or skipped most of her kunoichi classes) had asked him if he was 'visiting the Uchiha graveyard and were roses his mother's favourite flower or something?'

How could anyone be so dense?!

Sasuke had temporarily given up after that to regroup. He needed a different approach. And his ego needed time to recover.

Looking over at Naruto, he couldn't help but stare. Her long red hair was loose for once, trailing over the dock. She was sitting on the edge of the dock like he was, legs swinging absentmindedly, leaning back on her hands and her face tilted towards the sun, her beautiful blue eyes closed. A small content smile pulled on her cute whisker marks and she was humming a soft tune under her breath.

"I love you."

Fuck. Did he just blurt it out?!

Naruto turned her head to look at him, a confused look on her face. Will she…?

"Hmm? Did you say something, Sasuke?"

If Sasuke hadn't been sitting down he would have fallen over in shock (and despair). He finally, _finally_ , manages to get the words out and Naruto wasn't even paying attention? And worse – she'd used one of Kakashi's signature lines.

Disappointment hit him with all the force of a rasengan to the face.

"No. Dobe."

"Hmph, teme", Naruto's eyes narrowed in suspicion before shrugging it off.

Silence settled over them again, just the sound of small waves hitting the dock and the sound of birdsong filling the air.

Silence, after his heartfelt and ignored confession, was starting to irritate Sasuke. And it was a well-documented fact that Sasuke didn't make the wisest decisions when he was angry.

He, too fast to follow, pushed Naruto off the dock.

Naruto gave a startled shriek before she hit the water with a loud splash. She surfaced quickly, spluttering, pushing soaked strands of red off her face and spun around to face a smirking Sasuke.

"Teme! What the hell?!" she shouted. Birds took off startled at the loud volume.

"Hn."

"Don't 'Hn' me, you bastard! Why'd you push me, jerk?"

"Hn."

"Fine, be that way. Teme."

She waded back to dock, muttering under her breath. Sasuke's amusement faded and his irritation was coming back full force. Just as Naruto pulled herself back onto the dock, Sasuke pushed her back off.

It took a few seconds longer for Naruto to surface and when she did Sasuke couldn't help but admire the furious red-head. Her smiles were bright and lit up his world but her fierceness was just as attractive to him. And whoa, did she look mad.

"Seriously teme, what the fuck?!"

"Hn. That's not how you react when someone tells you they love you, dobe."

"What?!" Naruto squeaked, face exploding into red. She looked a bit like a tomato.

Sasuke loved tomatoes.

"Have you got water in your ears?" he drawled, sarcastically.

"But you said you didn't say anything!" she protested, voice slightly strangled and high-pitched.

"Che. Not my fault you weren't listening in the first place, dobe."

"Well you didn't have to push me off the dock, asshole!"

"You could have used your chakra and water-walked. And you call yourself a ninja" he scoffed, mockingly.

Naruto's squawked in offence, and Sasuke opened his mouth to say more, but he was pushed from behind and fell, joining Naruto in the river.

He surfaced quickly, coughing and pushed his hair out of his face. Looking at the laughing Naruto in front of him, he looked behind him to the dock at her shadow-clone who gave him a cheeky wave before dispelling in a poof of smoke.

'She must have made the hand-signs underwater' he thought.

Sasuke didn't really mind being unceremoniously tossed into the water. It was refreshingly cool and washed off the sweat from training.

Turning back to the real Naruto, who was trying to catch her breath while bent double, he flicked some water into her face. Naruto reared back, startled, and he smirked.

Her eyes narrowed and she gave him a playful grin. That was all the warning Sasuke received before getting a face full of water.

Naruto's laughter rang out over the water.

This meant war.

What started off as a small water fight escalated quickly into throwing water jutsus at each other and dodging twisting water dragons.

An hour later they collapsed, panting from the heat and exertion (and a distinct lack of chakra considering their previous training session), soaked, onto the dock. Glancing over at Naruto, Sasuke couldn't help but chuckle at the ridiculous sight of Naruto with reeds sticking everywhere out of her hair.

Sitting up, he reached over to pick them out of her hair when Naruto looked at him quizzically. Her puzzled expression quickly turned into shock at the soft, affectionate smile on Sasuke's face. Blood rushed to her cheeks remembering what he'd said earlier.

Oh. Sasuke loved her.

Naruto looked away, face burning hot, while she let Sasuke continue to pick out the reeds. She snuck some rather obvious glances at him from the corner of her eye. Sasuke pretended not to notice and decided to say nothing, hiding the sudden nerves from sheer practice.

Delicately picking out the last reed he settled back into his place and threw them back into the water. He decided to copy Naruto's earlier pose and leaned back to watch the few clouds, waiting for Naruto to say something.

* * *

Naruto was a mess.

She retreated to her mindscape and screamed incoherently for a while before Kurama kicked her out.

She never thought, for a _second_ , that Sasuke felt _that_ way about her. She never thought Sasuke would feel that way about _anyone_ , to be honest.

He had always been aloof, detached, and then he'd gone insane, started a war and tried to kill everyone.

Not exactly the actions of a man looking for love.

Not to mention his plans to steal her Hokage dream from her (ha! Over my dead body, teme!).

The few times she thought about Sasuke's love life she always thought Sakura would be involved. And that thought stung for reasons she didn't understand, so she forced herself to stop thinking about any kind of romance connected to Sasuke.

But thinking about it now…well, there were signs weren't there? She didn't know how she missed the one with the Hokage Monument, it was pretty obvious in hindsight and made her feel all kinds of stupid. And his face just now, when he smiled at her? That made her feel stupid in a different way.

So, maybe, just maybe….Naruto loved him too?

Well, she _had_ spent years chasing after him (she cringed when she remembered she called him her brother, _gross_ ) and trying to smack some sense into him. And he'd come around in the end and helped her save the world, and Naruto knew they looked totally badass when they worked together.

There wasn't anyone she trusted to have her back as much as she trusted Sasuke. Naruto knew she could take on the whole world, and any goddess or alien or whatever else the world threw at her, as long as she had Sasuke by her side.

Oh.

 _Oh_.

So this was love.

It was nice.

Really, _really_ nice.

Actually, it was totally _awesome_ , believe it!

But it could be even better…

"So…you want to go get ramen or something?"

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Sasuke looked over and was instantly stunned by the bright smile, not a grin, or a smirk, but a big beaming Naruto smile. Blinking a few times to get rid of the sparkles filling the air, he repeated her words in his head. Sasuke couldn't stop the biggest smile he was capable of from spreading over his face even if he tried.

He climbed gracefully to his feet and extended a hand to help her up. Naruto took his hand without hesitation and he gently pulled her up. She leaned briefly into him, still clutching his hand, before stepping away and intertwining their fingers.

Naruto started pulling him along in the direction of Ichiraku's Ramen, chattering his ear off, and Sasuke couldn't be happier.

She didn't say the words but that was ok. Sasuke had waited this long, he could wait a bit longer.

And if Sasuke stumbled when he thought about how he was going to propose, well…Naruto only laughed at him for two minutes instead of the usual five.

Yes, this was something he could really get used to.

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A/N: And that's a wrap! Thanks for reading my story and I hope you enjoyed it! :)

Quick disclaimer: I don't own anything Naruto related. Also, to the best of my knowledge, I haven't read anything like this, so any similarities to other stories are unintentional.

If you want to leave reviews you can but I'm not asking for them because it's unlikely I'll read them, because I am to reviews as a penguin is to land, that is to say I'm terribly awkward and likely to flop. I'm also a coward with anxiety, so overall not a great mix. But thank you in advance for any reviews/follows/favourites, it gives my heart the warm and fuzzies and makes me squeal with glee (internally).

And this will remain a one-shot, I've been going over it so much and it's finally gotten to a stage I like so I'm leaving it like this. Your imagination can fill in the rest!

Again, thank you! :)


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